vandenburgh



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. 0. VANDENBURGH.

BUOYANT PROPBLLER.

No. 377,181. Patented Jan. 31, 1888.

(No'ModeL) 2 SheetsSheet 2. 0. VANDENBURGH.

BUOYANT PROPELLER.

No. 377,181. Patented Jan. 31, 1888.

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N. PETER; Pholo-Lllhognpher. Wnhingon, n c

lzmnj ORIGEN VANDENBUBGH, OF NEXV YORK, N. Y.

BUOYANT PROPELLER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 377,181, dated January"31, 1888.

Application filed March 28, 1887. Serial No. 232,664 (No model.)

.To all whom it may concern.-

Be it k nown that I OnIoEN VANDENBURGH, a citizen of the United States,residingin the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a newand useful Improvement in Buoyant Propellers, of which the following isa specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to that class of propellingwheels known as buoyantpropellers, which consist of cylinders having their peripheries composedof or surrounded by circular series of air-chambers which are open atthose sides or ends which are presented peripherically outward,and inwhich, when the said sides or ends are submerged, thereis confined acertain quantity of air, through which the propeller itself and thesuperincumbent weight of the vessel borne by it are directly supportedupon the water.

My improvement consists, essentially, in the self-collapsibleconstruction of the said air-chambers, whereby I obviate the resistanceto the withdrawal of the said air-chambers from the water as the saidcylinders or wheels rotate, which might otherwise result from theformation of a partial vacuum in said chambers.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a vertical sectionparallel with the planes of rotation of a supporting and propellingwheel constructed according to my in vention. Fig. 2 represents asimilar view of a portion of such a wheel with means of giving rotarymotion to the same. Fig. 3 is a side view of a steam-vessel supportedand propelled by wheels or cylinders constructed according to myinvention. Fig. 4 represents a longitudinal section of the same in theline 00 x of Fig. 5, which represents a horizontal sec tion of the same.Fig. 6 is a diagram of a portion of the periphery of one of the supporting wheels or cylinders, illustrating a system on which theair-chambers may be constructed and arranged.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the severalfigures.

The supporting and propelling wheels or cylinders consist each of acylinder or drum, A, having flanges a a. at each end, and having thespace between said flanges divided by partitions b b, arranged in anysuitable manneras, for instance, in squares, hexagons, orparallelogramsto form air chambers c c, which are open at the outerperiphery of the structure. In each of these chambers 0 there is fitteda bag, d, (see Figs. 1, 2, and 6,) made of india-rubber or of clothcoated or saturated with any suitable water-proof material, or made ofany other strong water-proof and flexible fabric, the mouth of the saidbag opening toward the mouth of the chamber and being secured closely toand around the walls of the chamber by any suitable means. These bagsform the inner ends and portions of the sides of the chambers, which areflexible, and are exposed to theatmosphere through suitable openings inthe-cylinder A, as shown at a n in Figs. 1 and 2.

The hull or portion of the vessel which is to contain crew, cargo,passengers, and stores may be variously constructed and supported on thewheels or cylinders (one or more) thus constructed.

In Fig. 1 the hull is represented as consisting of a structure, B,placed entirely within the cylinder A, wherein it is supported on wheelsor rollers e e on annular tracks ff, the said structure being keptupright by a proper disposition of its weight.

In Figs. 3, l, 5 the hull consists ofa carriage, 0, supported above thesurface of the water on four cylinders or wheels A, having air-chamberedperipheries like that shown in Fig. 1, the support being given by meansof trunks or tubular bearers gg, passingtransverselythrough the saidbull or carriage and firmly connected with the sides thereof, the saidtrunks constituting axles to the supporting and propelling cylinders andwheels, and being fitted with bearing-wheels h h, to bear on annulartracks provided in the cylinders A. These trunks may also constituteengine-rooms containing engines 2' i, for producing the rotary motion ofthe cylinders or wheels for propelling the vessel, the engines, as shownin Fig. 2, being geared by cog-wheels jj with circular racks it withinthe cylinders, or being furnished with smooth wheels r 0', running ontracks as within the cylinders for the purpose of driving the same, thesaid engine-rooms being reached by passages Zfrom the portions of thehull between the wheels or cylinders.

The vessel or hull structure supported on theso-constructed wheels orcylinders and the ing rotation, and the compression being increaseduntil the said chambers arrive directly under the axis of the wheel orcylinder, after which the air expands until the chambers leave or arejust about to leave the water, when the bags d will, owing to thepressure of the atmosphere on their exteriors, be free to partlycollapse, as shown at the left hand of Fig. 1, in which the direction ofrotation isindicated by an arrow, and in this way the said bagspreventany resistance to the withdrawal of the chambers from the waterthat might otherwise result from the formation of a partial vacuumwithin them, owing to the escape of a portion of the air as they enteredthe water. In order to keep the bags (1 distended at all times but whentheir collapsion is required to take place, and then to permit them tocollapse freely, the said bags may be strengthened by hoops, coils,bows, or thin ribs of steel or "other elastic and flexible metal ormaterial, thus addingelasticity to the flexible portions of the chambersand assisting in the expansion of said portions after leaving the water.There are three properties of the liquid surface of the earth which Ibelieve that I suc-' eessfully utilize in my invention by the rotarymotion and rollingcontact of the airchambered propelling and supportingcylinders or wheels. These are as follows:

' First. The resistance of water to being moved or displaced increasesin a higher ratio than the velocity of the attacking body. Thisresistance is never less than as the square of that velocity, and isgreatest when the pressure is downward. By my invention this law ofresistance is made to operate beneficially to sustain and'propel thevessel over the whole surface of contact, while'by the present system ofsteam-propulsion this law operates beneficially only against therelatively small area of con tact of the paddle and screw andinjuriously and as a resistance against the very large area of contactof the hull of the vessel.

Second. The very slight cohesion between the particles of water permitsof its very easy penetration by a thin solid which causes no substantivedisplacement. In the operation of my invention the only contact is thedropping With this operation and the refusal of air and water to mixwhen in contact and under pressure, there results a condition far morefavorable for rapid water transportation than has heretofore beenobtained-that is, sustaining the vehicle and its load on an elasticcushion of atmospheric air substantially free from contact with theearth-a condition whereby resistance from impact, as well as nearly allthe other resistance which now comes from the immersion and resultingmotion in contact with the water of the ordinary ship or Vessel,disappears. Then as the air-chambers by their rotation successively comedown in contact they are closed by the water, and the air within them iscompressed by the weight of the cylinder or wheel audits load. Thechambers by their rotation pass aft and rise out of the was for themoment lost by the. resistance and compression in front. Finally, theflexible and elastic bags which constitute the upper and inner portionsof the airchambers, by being capable of collapsion when the pressurewithin the air-chamber is less than the normal pressure of theatmosphere, insure the air-chambers leaving the water with a very slightor merely nominal resistance.

Third. The unlimited room for a cylinder or wheel both in diameter andwidth to roll on the liquid surface compared with the limited spacewithin which the dimensions of a wheel for land-vehicles is confined. aWhat I claim as my invention, and desire t secure by Letters Patent, is-The buoyant propeller consisting of a cylinder having its peripherycomposed of or surrounded by self-collapsible open-mouthed air chamberswhich receive within them'the air 0. VFANDENBIURG H.

Witnesses:

FREDK. HAYNES, HENRY J. McBRIDE.

